USD FRESHMAN LEFT-HANDER STEPS UP WHEN IT COUNTS MOST

What Troy Conyers did Saturday night is why you rush back to your hotel room to sit and watch ESPNU. It is why you tell your wife “just 10 more minutes” four times. It is why you let the kids run around screaming upstairs even though it is two hours past bedtime.

It is why you watch sports, hoping for an epic moment.

A freshman pitcher whose first season of college baseball had essentially been a failure took the ball in the biggest game of the season (of his life) and threw a complete-game shutout.

Conyers’ three-hitter in USD’s 2-0 victory over San Francisco in the championship game of the West Coast Conference tournament was a whole bunch of awesome.

It was, above all, a kid realizing his potential at the best possible time.

One of USD head coach Rich Hill’s many isms is this: You can’t build a fence around what you can accomplish.

That would just be words if not for the fact Saturday’s win has the Toreros headed to their eighth NCAA Tournament in 12 years.

It is when an ism is personified that sports becomes magnificent.

“I had told myself when we were in the locker room,” Conyers said, “that I wasn’t going to bring my turf shoes down to the dugout because I wanted to go the entire game. I knew I could.”

That is some kind of confidence for a kid who took a 10.12 ERA (over 10 2/3 innings in 14 relief appearances) into the first start of his college career.

“It’s definitely been a disappointment,” Conyers said of his initial collegiate campaign.

“We think he is a prime time Division I pitcher,” Hill said. “We thought he was ready as a freshman. It just took 59 games.”

Conyers left El Capitan High as the school’s all-time strikeout leader, California’s player of the year and an All-American. But a shoulder issue and simple inexperience got the better of him through much of this season.

Before Saturday’s game, Hill asked Conyers if he remembered his high school record and if he recalled striking out seven North Carolina State players over three innings in a scrimmage in the fall.

Conyers was starting Saturday because USD had no one else. That’s how it gets in a tournament setting, especially after losing a game. The Toreros had used 11 pitchers, including their three starters. The coaches figured this would be the alphabet soup that a college game can become.

As much as he believes in possibilities over limitations, Hill had to be prepared on Saturday. He and pitching coach Tyler Kincaid devised a plan that called (hoped) for Conyers to go through the Dons’ order once.

“That was the script,” Hill said. “And we just kept pushing it back.”

Conyers was never in trouble.

It is impossible to overstate how much the left-hander befuddled a team than its previous two tournament games had 28 hits and 18 runs. Conyers worked inside and out, kept hitters completely off-balance with excellent location, a clear plan and a changeup he threw in virtually every count.

“I felt amazing,” he said. “I felt like I was my old self.”

It was with one out in the ninth that the Dons got their first runner to second base, after a walk and wild pitch. At that point, San Francisco cleanup hitter Zachary Turner stood in the box representing the tying run.

He either took or fouled off 14 pitches. The 15th pitch, on a full count, was a fastball up and in, over Turner’s swing.

“I was like, ‘I am either going to walk him or strike him out with the pitch,’ ” Conyers recalled. “... That was by far the biggest strikeout I’ve ever had in my entire life.”

Two pitches later, Conyers’ 123rd of the night, a line drive to right field ended up in the glove of diving right fielder A.J. Robinson.

“Through adversity is where you find your true character,” Conyers said. “When you know you have the ability to do something and you’re not doing it, it becomes really frustrating. The drive comes from knowing you can be that person, just wanting it, wanting the feeling of success again.”

Again, easy to say. The doing is where we are rewarded with the transcendent magic of sports.